Rapid development of information technology (IT) has greatly affected the automobile industry, and diverse IT has been applied in a vehicle.
In particular, a currently released vehicle has various devices for user convenience and various assistive devices for safe driving. Accordingly, a human machine interface (HMI) for control of the devices has been provided.
In general, a center fascia refers to a control panel part positioned between a driver seat and a passenger seat in a vehicle dashboard.
Various electronic control devices, such as an audio device, an air conditioning control device, a digital clock, a navigator, and the like are separately disposed in the center fascia.
In particular, the center fascia is provided with various user interface panels for control of an air conditioning device, an audio/navigator device, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and the like, and thus is a significantly important design factor in terms of user operation convenience and internal structure design of the vehicle.
Touch panels or full touchscreens instead of existing mechanical switches are applied to control panels of some of recently released vehicles.
However, a vehicle requires a differentiated interface for each region according to a cultural difference and an ability of a customer to adapt to a technology, and requires a flexible structural design for a control device to be additionally provided and an interface change due to the additionally provided control device.
When existing electronic devices such as an audio device, an air conditioning control device, a digital clock, a navigation device, and the like are independently installed in the vehicle, the inside of the center fascia may be significantly complicated, and thus, a package space may be insufficient.
Moreover, wiring for communication between the electronic devices is complicated, and thus, the number of assembly processes may increase.
In particular, an HMI configuration suitable for a design of each vehicle model is needed, and thus, development period and cost may increase.
An entirely integrated HMI module referred to as a center stack has been recently released. The center stack may improve the insufficient package space and the complex wiring. However, the center stack may not sufficiently satisfy various requirements for each vehicle model and region, and thus may not be commonly used.